Impact of ethanol on oxidation of iso-octane at low and intermediate temperatures

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of ethanol on the oxidation of iso-octane at low and intermediate temperatures. Flow reactor experiments are conducted on binary mixtures ranging from neat iso-octane to neat ethanol at temperatures of 650 K and 875 K, a pressure of 10 bar and an equivalence ratio of 0.058, with the intermediate species and gas temperatures measured along the reactor. At 650 K, where neat iso-octane is near the peak of its low temperature chain branching, the addition of small amounts of ethanol dramatically suppresses iso-octane's reactivity and formation of intermediate species. Kinetic simulation reveals that this inhibition effect is a result of ethanol competing for OH..